First off I'd like to publicly apologize to Captnchaos. Sometime in June I received a message from him that he was going to be on Lake Leelanau this summer. When I received his message I was super busy with work. To Make a long story short, later I couldn't figure out who had messages me or wether they emailed me or messages me on this forum. So I missed his trip to Lake Leelanau. I live here and would have loved to sail with him...(until I heard he pitch polled:-). I'm sincerely sorry I was unable to show him some northern hospitality. I didn't know who ya were till I read yer post. Apologies.

QUESTION:On Friday, I sailed with a buddy from the town of Leland to North Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. 25.11 miles round trip. Top speed 8.8 mph. It was Amazing!!!! You Ocean people don't Laugh. Lake Michigan is a serious body of water ("The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgearld"?) It was rockin'

1.What kind of GPS should I get for this baby (TI Papaya)2.What is a a NOAA Small Craft Advisory? Does this mean great sailing, or if you go out, you die?3. What are the eyelets on both ends of the amas (pontoons) for?

I recommend getting A Lowrance Elite4-DSI fishfinder/chart plotter. I love mine to bits, especially since I reconfigured the display to show depth, speed over ground and battery voltage in large letters. I don't know pricing in your area, but it only cost a bit over $400 here in Oz, and I added a Silver Navionics micro-SD which gives me the whole of Australia's coast (limited to 10 metre depth, which is good enough in most cases.Someone will no doubt chime in on your small craft advisory, but I make my own judgement call.. if the swell is big (eg 2-3 metres, and forecast wind is 20+ knots, and it is an offshore wind, I just go sailing on my local lake) I am sure others will have differing opinions

The eyelets on the ends of the amas are there for your enjoyment! Some people rig barber-haulers to hold the sail out better going downwind, some people attach lines to them diagonally to extra brace them in case of aka failure...

Hey Leelanaux, Lake Leelanau is a beautiful lake for an AI or TI. The week I was up there we had great wind most of the time. Unfortunate we didn't hook up and no apology needed. One day we explored the north end of the lake and went up the narrows and saw some otters which was pretty cool.

We also played tourist in Leland and I got to talking with some people who just came from a back country camping trip on North Manitou Island. I thought that could be the perfect trip for a couple AI/TI's and some camping equipment.

I hear you about Lake Michigan. Several years ago I was up there with the AI and was planning to launch in Leland. Lake Michigan looked extremely perilous that day so I opted out. Looked every bit as challenging as any ocean. And the water is pretty chilly too.

Here's a thread with GPS discussion http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=13452 A small craft advisory can mean many things. It could mean good sailing but know what kind of weather is on it's way. You don't want to get stuck 10 miles from home in a thunderstorm or winds too strong.